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Portland Trail Blazers to widen array of digital features for fans

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Dewayne Hankins, Portland Trail Blazers vice president of marketing and digital, joined the team earlier this year from AEG Sports in Los Angeles where he oversaw digital efforts for the company's sports properties.
(Allan Brettman / The Oregonian )

By opening night on Nov. 2, however, the portals will be
whittled to one, trailblazers.com. The site, which already features an imprint
of change, will include the services offered previously on the other sites.

The website was among the digital changes that Blazers
president Chris McGowan and other team officials outlined during Media Day on
Monday.

Changing the team's web presence was one of the changes
McGowan targeted upon his arrival Nov. 12.

He perceived the choices as
confusing. He also wondered why the team had chosen to create its own web
presence rather than partnering with the National Basketball Association
digital services like every team in the league other than the Dallas Mavericks.

But the sites have not been changed since their creation
and, in addition to causing confusion among fans, they're outdated, Hankins
said.

Hankins has overseen the curation of a new site as well as
other digital changes planned.

These include a new smartphone app to replace the inaugural
app that was launched last November but experienced several snafus. Also, the
new app will work with iPhone as well as Android devices. The previous app
worked only with iPhone, or IOS, devices.

For the approximately 20,000 people who downloaded the
original app, they will be able to acquire the new features through a typical
app update. That should be ready in two to three weeks.

Also, the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter will allow fans to
connect the wireless devices through an enhanced Wi-Fi and telephone system.
The team contracted with a vendor to wire the arena, which opened in 1995, to
accommodate.

The Wi-Fi and app will be free, Hankins said. Both services
offer opportunities for the team to sell sponsorships.

Both will feature a registration process. That step is key
to determining whether the features are a success or failure.

"It's gotta be quick and relatively painless," he said.

Enhanced digital features and arena capabilities reflect a
fact of life in the NBA, circa 2013. Blazers officials expect the vast majority
of their fans to access digital information through mobile devices at some
point during the game.

Also, for team information in general, Hankins said, "more
people access via mobile devices than PCs or desktops." The definition of
mobile in this usage would include tablets as well.

Besides making simplifying the team's web presence, the
changes reflect the world of social media.

"If you look at it with a fresh palette, there's a new way
that you'd want to see things," he said.

Also, in-arena changes will accommodate the tweeting, photo
sharing and Facebook posting that typically takes place during a game – if fans
had previously been able to connect their devices with social media platforms.